By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – While the long-term future of the Iowa-Iowa State football rivalry could be in trouble due to the changing landscape in college athletics, the present couldn’t look much better.

Saturday’s much-anticipated showdown in Ames will mark the first time that both teams have been ranked for this game.

But they’re not just ranked, both teams also are ranked in the Associated Press top 10 with the 1-0 Cyclones at No. 9, and one spot ahead of the 1-0 Hawkeyes.

Iowa and Ohio are the only states that currently have two football teams ranked in the AP top 10, and that’s a worthy accomplishment and reason for fans from both states to be proud.

It’s even more impressive, considering Iowa’s population of approximately 3.2 million ranks in the lower half of the United States, while California is the most populous state at nearly 40 million followed by Texas at nearly 30 million and Florida at nearly 22 million.

Ames will be the center of the college football universe on Saturday as both teams battle for state bragging rights.

ESPN College GameDay will air its pre-game show from Ames on Saturday, as it did in 2019 when these teams met in Ames.

But the difference is that both teams are now ranked and Iowa State is coming off a season in which it tied the school record for wins with nine, capped by a 34-17 drubbing of Oregon in the 2021 Fiesta Bowl.

It marked Iowa State’s first appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl, and the victory over Oregon served as a springboard for this season.

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“You just think about the fact that our state, three million plus, has two top-quality Power Five programs,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. “Throw UNI in there and then a lot of good Division II and Division III programs, as well, it’s really amazing. I don’t know if there’s another state that can say that. I think it’s all good for everybody.

“I’ve always thought this series is a good thing for our state just in general. This is one week where people in the state, a lot of people are talking about football, which is a good thing for college football fans certainly.”

Texas has two teams ranked in the top 15 with Texas A&M and Texas ranked fifth and fifteenth, respectively, in this week’s AP poll. But with Texas, you’re talking about a state with almost nine times the population of Iowa, and where football is considered almost a religion, and where some high school coaches make six-figure salaries.

Ohio has a population of nearly 12 million, and produces some of the top high school players in the country on a regular basis.

So for Ohio State and Cincinnati to be ranked third and seventh, respectively, doesn’t seem as impressive as Iowa having two teams ranked in the top 10.

“One of the reasons to me it’s amazing that you have two teams that are ranked because you think about a state of three million, I can’t imagine there’s anything even close to this right now,” Ferentz said. “Maybe there is. But there is no Wisconsin State, Nebraska State, Utah — there is a Utah State, okay, I take that back. But you get the picture. There’s only so many players to go around. Yeah, it’s interesting.”

Saturday’s game has the makings of a classic, but with that comes the challenge of trying to live up to the enormous hype because the eyes of the college football world will be watching.

From the matchup on the field to the hype surrounding both head coaches, it’s easy see why ESPN College GameDay chose Ames as this week’s location.

The 66-year old Kirk Ferentz is the longest tenured head coach in the country, and Iowa’s all-time winningest head coach, while Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell has lifted Iowa State to unprecedented success, and is considered a rising star in his profession.

But Campbell is also 0-4 against Iowa, adding another twist to an already juicy storyline.

Ferentz can relate to what Campbell is going through in that regard because Ferentz lost his first five games against Iowa State from 1999 to 2002.

“We had a lot of obstacles, certainly,” Ferentz said.

Some Iowa fans have complained over the years that playing Iowa State on an annual basis is a lose-lose proposition because rarely have the Cyclones been relevant.

But that certainly isn’t the case now with Iowa State poised to have a historic season.

The Cyclones, who haven’t won a conference title since 1912, avoided a disaster last week by hanging on to defeat Northern Iowa 16-10 to set the stage for this week.

One narrative that has festered for years with this rivalry is that Iowa State considers the Iowa game to be its Super Bowl.

Iowa running back Tyler Goodson surprisingly helped to stoke that fire while meeting with the media on Tuesday.

“This is like their Super Bowl,” Goodson said while surrounded by reporters. “They haven’t beat us in a couple years (2014). I think them being at their home place knowing College GameDay is going to be there is a good distraction for them, and allows us just to focus on us.”

Goodson didn’t just make that statement out of nowhere. The line of questions sort of steered him down that path and he took the bait.

But seriously, does this game really need bulletin board material, especially old, stale bulletin board material?

Goodson wasn’t necessarily being disrespectful to Iowa State, but his response makes you wonder if maybe that is the rally cry coming from the Iowa program because coaches always look for a competitive edge.

Some Iowa fans also like to push the Super Bowl narrative because it’s their way of expressing superiority over, as they like to say, their little brother from Ames.

Kirk Ferentz downplayed it when asked on Tuesday if Iowa State was under more pressure than Iowa due to the presence of ESPN GameDay, and with many thinking this could be the best Iowa State team ever.

“I know Gameday was here last time we played up there, and again, that’s great for I think just the state of Iowa, visibility, so that’s a good thing,” Ferentz said. “But all that being said, I never knew they were there. We got off a bus, we walk in, and you don’t see we miss, the people playing in the games miss all that stuff. We’re totally disconnected from that.

“All I know, and hopefully our players understand, we’re going into a really tough environment against a really good football team with a lot of good players at all positions. That’s the reality of it all, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. You can’t worry about all the circumstances outside, you really can’t. If you do, you’re wasting energy and time. Hopefully everybody will understand that.”

Ferentz then was told that one of his prominent players had called this game Iowa State’s Super Bowl, and that GameDay could be a distraction that ultimately helps Iowa.

“Yeah, I hope he’s right, our player is right, but I doubt it,” Ferentz said. “I just can’t imagine — yeah, it’s a big deal, I’m not minimizing Gameday or any of that stuff. But it really doesn’t have anything to do with the game. My guess is they’re going to be totally focused on playing well. That would be my guess.”

Ferentz is right to doubt it because if Iowa State needs bulletin board material to get ready for Saturday’s game, then something is wrong.

And while the Iowa State players might be proud to know that GameDay is coming to town, to let that be a distraction would just be silly.

As big as Saturday’s game is, and despite all of the hype, it still isn’t a conference game.

An Iowa State fans should much rather want to defeat Oklahoma than Iowa, while an Iowa fan should want to beat Wisconsin more than Iowa State.

The beauty of this year’s game is that the loser won’t be saddled with a bad loss.

Saturday’s game will be a showcase for the state of Iowa, and a chance for both teams to get a signature win that would look nice on a potential playoff resume.

It might have been Iowa State’s Super Bowl when former Hawkeye Dan McCarney coached the Cyclones.

But times have changed.

Campbell has lifted Iowa State to unprecedented success, while Ferentz has kept Iowa respectable for about two decades.

Instead of worrying about which team values the game more, just appreciate that both teams are poised to have special seasons, and that the state of Iowa is basking in the well-deserved spotlight.